After more than three decades as a visionary presence in the Bay Area music scene, Molly Holm is celebrating the release of her first album, Permission, with a concert at the Freight. The new album features straight-ahead jazz standards by Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, and Mongo Santamaria, along with six originals that reflect the full range of musical influences who have inspired Molly as a singer and composer. “I've had such wonderful opportunities throughout my performance career,” she says, “working with, and learning from, diverse and highly-acclaimed artists who know how to push the envelope. And now, to finally bring together my own musical ideas into a single recording, I have to say it does my soul good.”

Molly grew up in Salem, Oregon and came to the Bay Area in the 1970s to study at Mills College, where she discovered Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley, and W.A. Mathieu, all of whom have had a lasting impact on her music. She worked with Bobby McFerrin in the 80s, helping him audition singers and then becoming one of the original members of his groundbreaking group, Voicestra. Since then she’s worked with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, choreographer June Watanabe, pioneering performance artist George Coates, and vocalist extraordinaire Linda Tillery. “I’m an improviser,” Molly says. “It runs throughout my life. Sometimes I think about what Anthony Braxton said about improvisation in jazz. ‘If you don’t make a mistake, you’re making a mistake.’ I love that.” The East Bay Express describes her voice as “a fluid, birdsong alto, winding and lilting, with barely a hint of vibrato; a voice like the woody middle register of a clarinet.” She assembled a powerhouse band for the album and for tonight’s show, which will feature Frank Martin on piano, Jeff Chambers on bass, Deszon Claiborne on drums, Wayne Wallace on trombone, and Melecio Magdaluyo on saxophone, as well as classical Indian dancer and vocal percussionist Antonia Minnecola. It’s been a long time coming, but tonight’s debut promises to be worth the wait!